Working with rural communities in Karnataka, India, Decentralising Digital is an ongoing research project seeking to co-create new narratives for decentralised digital futures.

We are exploring how developments in emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, the voice enabled Internet, machine learning and artificial intelligence might be harnessed to meaningfully support rural communities in India. We imagine that the work presented here can be adapted and used by other communities and stakeholders, in their own work in reimagining different, more sustainable futures for these communities.

We imagined a series of artefacts that might be found in these diverse futures. These artefacts intentionally adopt a visual and material language rooted in the knowledge of the people and the communities we worked with.

These futures mirror those we have seen emerging in India, where different people and communities play a part in engaging with decentralised technology in different ways. This is a future where people are not beholden to technology but choose to use it for their own good. A future where technology supports and complements existing sustainable patterns and behaviours, rather than imposing new ones.

The matter of how much technology we should include in these artefacts was debated thoroughly: we recognised that while some of these artefacts needed to highlight emergent digital technologies, it was also necessary to illustrate their plausibility within the contexts that enabled their adoption and success.

Children’s Coding Kit

Children’s Coding Kit. Stainless steel case containing ‘Your Voice’ developers board, various electronic components, and a deck of coding cards. 2025.

Education builds hope. Hope that can help challenge an overtly globalised society in which the centralisation of technology has stifled local innovation and resulted in the uneven distribution of wealth. That the Soliga people possess such hope was evident in the way they worked with educators and technologists to develop locally-tuned digital products and services for themselves.

In 2025, a Soliga child studying at the Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK) in BR hills signs up to participate in a government inter-school competition. The topic: designing hopeful technology futures for local contexts. A You-Learn coding kit arrives in the school’s mailroom. You-Learn advocates for fairer technology for all and seeks to help people understand and then take control of the algorithms and code that affect their lives. This simple metal box contains the building blocks of many futures. A Class 8 student takes the kit, cradling the box in her arms as she walks home.

Deepa’s parents are hovering over her. Just 12 years old,she is the youngest school lead in this inaugural You-Learn competition. She knows she’s smart. She’s always been that. Her parents watch with expectation and trepidation as she opens the shiny metal box. Inside is the world’s first microcomputer that can be programmed by speech. In Deepa’s hands, it will become the world’s first Soliga voice assistant. Deepa was part of the first group that helped user-test the alpha release nearly two years ago. Working with a young Soliga researcher, Dr. Nagamma C,she and the team tested the technology to see if it could help catalogue and preserve the sounds of the forest. Now, she has two weeks to lead the team that will build a prototype voice assistant, one that will be tested directly by the tribe’s elders. A voice assistant that can be sung to.

Deepa finishes unboxing the microcomputer, plugs it in, and says what she has been waiting two years to say: “Hi Soli, can we get started?” Tiny lights on the circuit board flicker like fireflies in spring as a Soliga voice says *Opening file: Hello BR Hills. Adjusting mic-array to 80cm. Calibrating for female voice. Hello Deepa, what do you want to do?*

Soliga Voice Assistants

Three Soliga Voice Assistants. Turned painted lacquered wood, brass bezel, various electronic components. 2034. Cast bell metal, metal bezel, woven twine, various electronic components. 2045. Perforated dried gourd, brass dial, woven twine, various electronic components. 2030.

The emergence of open Voice AI means that people are free to create their own voice assistants, naming and interacting with them however they like. In time, these AI devices become less like assistants and more like pets; cared for, taught, and nurtured over many years. Their forms are crafted by local artisans and individualised to their users. With their early commitment to teach coding in tribal schools, the Soligas are now at the forefront of new experiments to decentralise technology in Karnataka. The AI device has been taught that Soliga voices are an indivisible part of the forest’s soundscape; that they are as much part of the forest’s sound as the woodpecker’s tap and the wolf’s howl. Languages and sounds are encoded in ways that respect the Soliga culture and lifestyle. Bird calls, the swish of the wind through the leaves, and the humming of bees are all part of the vocabulary of an AI trained for and by Soligas. A voice assistant for the forest.

The group of four Soligas has paused for rest under the Dodda Sampige Mara. A young man and woman are inspecting the markings on a hollowed-out gourd while the other two are resting their backs against the broad tree, the spring sunshine playing on their closed eyes. “No, that’s not how you do it,” says the woman, “give it to me”. She takes the device from the man and holds it confidently, adjusting the dial at its neck while listening attentively to the quiet clicks of the device. “You need to focus the distance first like this, and then…” she stops turning the dial and points the device in the direction of a far-off whistling sound. *Black Drongo food call signifying presence of bees* says the device in a sing-song Soliga voice. “Easy as that – if you’d learnt from Achugegowda, you wouldn’t be needing this anyway” she scolds in a friendly way. “Yes, but you made it – of course it’s easy for you to use, Deepa” the younger man flashes. “Pah, le